Infants come into the world ready to communicate. From birth, they recognize human speech, and use their own sounds, expressions and body movements to connect and convey their needs. Eventually, they graduate to gestures, babbling and their very first words. At this stage, they enjoy being read to and like to be involved in activities around them.

As toddlers, they add new words to their vocabulary each day, and start stringing words together to create sentences.  Early scribbles are their first attempt at writing. They now gain an appreciation for books and a preference for their favorite stories:

There are four components to language development in infants and toddlers:

• Listening and understanding: When adults speak to them, their brain’s hearing, social, emotional and language centers are all activated. “Talk” exposes them to words they’ll need when they start reading.
• Speaking: This is what is said or expressed to others, and includes spoken and sign language. Here, children learn about the production of sounds and signs, rules of the language and social aspects of speech.
• Early reading: The foundation for reading is built during this time as infants and toddlers listen and speak words from home.
• Early writing: This refers to the ability to express ideas and meaning by using symbols to represent language.

Bottom line: Infants and toddlers develop language and the power to communicate through interactions. Parents, caregivers and teachers all play a major role in this development.

Preschoolers (3-5 years old)

While oral language development—listening and speaking skills—will vary by child, pre-kindergarten is a period of rapid growth and expansion. Children in environments rich in language, novel experiences and conversation increase their understanding of spoken language, and the ability to use oral language to communicate their ideas and experiences. Research points to better social and emotional skills for preschoolers with larger vocabularies and greater oral language skills. They develop friendships, interact appropriately with peers and adults in the classroom, and express needs and feelings constructively.

There are five areas that preschoolers advance their language and communication development:

• Listening (receptive language): This is the way a child verbally and behaviorally responds to oral communication.
• Speaking (expressive language): This refers to how clearly a child can express himself or herself in words.
• Vocabulary development: This includes a huge expansion in words a child understands, especially those related to a growing understanding of the world around him or her.
• Sentences and structure: In this stage, children expand their use of complete sentences and demonstrate growing mastery of correct structure by arranging words they use to communicate.
• Conversation: This describes how children initiate, participate appropriately and modify their speaking behaviors for different contexts and settings.

Bottom line: Children who can describe an experience, ask for help, and express excitement and curiosity adapt more easily to challenges, expectations and new situations.
Preschool Language & Communication